


On Sharing a Room and The Effects Thereof

by Quantum_Reality



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 03:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2294834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantum_Reality/pseuds/Quantum_Reality
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin and Zoro both need to get their theses done. Unfortunately for them, someone screwed up when assigning them their dedicated study rooms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Sharing a Room and The Effects Thereof

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This work of fan fiction is not for personal profit. All the characters used in this fan fic are the property of Shueisha and/or Toei Animation.

Zoro Roronoa closed the door and looked around the windowless rectangular study room he’d been allotted for the semester.

There was an L-shaped desk set into the corner nearest the door, with a comfortable chair in front of it. Against the far corner sat another L-shaped desk with another chair, this one with a monitor and printer connected to a computer underneath it. Both desks were situated so that a large whiteboard took up the opposite long wall, and a projector screen could be pulled down so he could practice his presentations if he wanted.

 _The library sure thought of everything_ , he thought with a slight smile.

He set his bag on the empty desk and took out his laptop, then retrieved his power cord and got it set up. He figured he’d only use the room computer to print things or run his practice presentations; otherwise, his laptop was fine for what he needed to do.

Zoro, savoring the isolation, sat down to begin his thesis outline. But just as he got started, the door opened with a distinct click.

“What the _hell_?!” Zoro blurted.

* * *

Robin Nico had been assigned a study room for the semester. She hummed to herself as she walked down the long hallway, and thought about how nice it would be to lock herself away and really get started on drafting her thesis.

The study rooms were located on one of the upper floors of the library, and each one could only be opened by an access card programmed for that particular room. Of course, any of the library staff could go in, but as a rule, if you had a room allotted to you (and there weren’t that many), you could lock yourself in and not be bothered.

A grin tugged at Robin’s lips as she walked up to room number 128 and swiped her card across the reader, and it clicked open as it should.

The grin abruptly melted off her face as she stepped inside and saw a green-haired man wearing a light blue Oxford shirt and dark blue dress pants already sitting at the desk.

Robin lifted one eyebrow and stared down at him.

* * *

Zoro stood up to face the newcomer, a tall, black-haired woman in a white short-sleeved ruffled blouse and a grey skirt. “This is supposed to be _my_ study room!” he said, dismayed.

“Clearly, you had the wrong impression,” she retorted.

“One of us has the wrong card, then,” Zoro said. “That’s the only explanation.”

The tall woman held up her card and stepped into the hallway. “Here, I’ll show you. Mine works for this room.”

She walked over to room 129, and tried swiping in. The reader made a dull buzz and blinked red.

“Now you try.”

Zoro sighed and grudgingly went to try his card on the other room’s reader. Sure enough, it rejected his card. He closed the door to room 128 and said, “Well, I tried _this_ card on _this_ door and it sure as hell let me in!”

He swiped his card across the reader and it emitted a short beep and blinked green. “See?” He turned the door handle and sure enough, the door swung open.

The woman put her card in her purse, crossed her arms, and said, “Then we need to go to whoever’s in charge to straighten this out.”

“Hell yes, we do!” Zoro expostulated as he shut the door again and began walking down the hall to the stairs.

Ten minutes later, two irritated graduate students (Zoro being the more visibly annoyed of the two) stood at the counter before the library assistant, and after several minutes of record-checking, the woman stood, handed the cards back to Zoro and the other student – whose name turned out to be Robin Nico – and with an apologetic expression said, “I’m really sorry. What normally happens is the intake assessor assigns rooms on a first-come, first-served basis. You, Zoro, were before you, Robin, and what should have happened was your room should have immediately been marked as unavailable. But it wasn’t, and so when Robin’s name came up, she was assigned your room, and _then_ it was marked as unavailable, but we’ve never considered the possibility of a conflict, so nobody was alerted when duplicate access cards were programmed for the same study room.”

She sighed. “Unfortunately, all the rooms are booked. Now one of you can return your card, and be placed at the top of the list for next term—”

Zoro broke in. “No way! I have to get my thesis done _now_ ; my advisor wants me to defend this year!”

Robin chimed in, saying, “My Archaeological Foundation Grant runs out in six months. I can’t defer to next semester either.”

The assistant spread her hands. “Then all I can do is suggest you two try to share the room and make it work. Otherwise, I’m stuck. There are no more rooms that can be granted to you on a twenty-four-hour access basis.”

Zoro’s shoulders slumped as he walked away from the counter, holding his card. “Shit,” he groused. He went to the elevator and stabbed the UP button, not really wanting to trudge up the stairs that moment.

Robin joined him and silently waited until the elevator doors opened, then stepped inside and leaned against the wall opposite Zoro as he pushed the button and leaned back as well, tilting his head back until it lightly thunked against the wall.

“My day went from awesome to suck in like ten seconds,” Zoro moaned.

“All we can do now is figure things out,” said Robin in even tones.

Zoro leaned forward, scrutinizing her. She had long straight black hair that went down to her shoulders, thin eyebrows, brown eyes, a sharp thin nose, and her lips were currently pursed in disappointment. Her blouse did little to hide her prominent breasts, and her outfit accentuated her hourglass figure. Even though she was otherwise thin, Judging from the way the visible part of her upper arm flexed as she clenched her fist, waiting for the elevator to reach their floor, Zoro suspected she was stronger than she looked.

Zoro grunted noncommittally as the elevator finally dinged, and exited onto the study room floor after the doors opened.

* * *

Robin, aware of Zoro’s scrutiny, busied herself doing the same thing.

The most obvious thing was his green hair: why a grad student pursuing a doctorate would still dye his hair _green_ was beyond her, but maybe he was in an arts faculty for which the hair was needed – perhaps if he was in a dance troupe, she imagined. He had intense dark blue eyes, slightly tanned skin, an aquiline nose, and thin lips that currently grimaced in frustration. His shirt couldn’t hide the fact that he had a fairly muscular chest, and she could see the outline of his thigh muscles through his pants.

Robin clenched her fist, thinking of all the months potentially wasted if she had to compete with someone else for a study area. It nearly drove her to distraction, and she only realized they’d hit the study room floor when the doors opened.

She followed Zoro back to their room, and said, “Look, we may as well try to sort _some_ thing out. Yes?”

Zoro sighed and swiped them in. As they walked inside, Zoro shut the door and said, “Well, we’re supposedly smart enough to defend theses and get ‘doctor’ in front of our names, so we should be able to figure this out.”

He went to the whiteboard and picked up a marker, and drew up a schedule of the days of the week.

“Okay. I’ve got a meeting with my thesis advisor every Monday. And I like having Sundays off. So—”

Zoro wrote down the days he knew he wouldn’t use the room, then Robin took the marker from him, not really registering how warm his hand felt to the touch. She wrote out the days she wouldn’t be likely to use the room, which were Friday for her advisor meeting, and Saturday.

“That leaves three days of the week for which we need to decide how to split this room up,” Robin concluded.

“Great. An odd number,” Zoro said through gritted teeth as he ran his hand through his hair. “Damn it!”

Robin just tapped her chin, thinking. She leaned against the desk, resting her hip against it.

“I suppose we could alternate: two days-one day one week, then one day-two days the next.”

Zoro grimaced. “We’d always be arguing over what week was what. I’d never keep that straight in my head.”

Robin looked at Zoro and said, “Then we’ll simply have to share the room _somehow_. If it comes down to it, perhaps we could agree to not bother each other and both use this room, or agree to take half days.”

Zoro ran his hand through his hair, paced for a bit, then said, “Let’s try the half day thing for Tuesdays through Thursdays. I don’t know what hours you like to be awake, but I usually get going in the early mornings and I like knocking off midafternoon.”

“That’ll work, I think. I like to start later in the day, usually noon.” Robin pushed herself away from the desk and stood up. “We’ll see how it goes. Lastly, formally introducing myself, I’m Robin Nico.” She held out her hand, and Zoro took it.

“Zoro Roronoa.”

His hand felt firm but his grip wasn’t painful; the warmth of Zoro’s hand made her momentarily want to extend the handshake, but she restrained herself and let go.

Robin inclined her head. “Until next time, then. Today’s Tuesday. I’ll start my writing tomorrow, so you can expect me here between noon and two PM.”

Zoro sat down in his chair and replied, “All right. I should be finishing up by then.”

With that, Robin shifted the purse strap on her shoulder and left the room. All in all, she thought, it could have been worse. At least this Zoro person seemed reasonable, if a bit more excitable than she.

Maybe it would all work out.

* * *

Thanks to Ayala Atreides on Tumblr/Journalfen for beta reading this. :)

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a collection of AU prompts originally posted on Tumblr. One of them was: "accidentally got assigned the same library study room so I guess we’ll have to share for the semester" au


End file.
